Later start time both help and hinder students

This semester, the school will have a half dozen morning staff collaboration meetings, meaning classes don’t start until 9 a.m. While these days disrupt students’ routines, they actually point in a direction future schedules may want to consider going.

The reason for these few late start days is to help complete the Western Association of Schools and Colleges’ (WASC) self-study review, which offers accreditation for a majority of K-12 schools in California. The school gains a multitude of benefits from accreditation; above all, students can be assured that the school is a legitimate institution.

These meetings mean school will be shifted 45 minutes later, and while that might not sound like much, it can immensely help overloaded students who need a small break. Most students will use the extra time to get additional sleep, which not only will benefit them in terms of health, but also help them in their academics, as more sleep will allow students  to concentrate more and think better. Students can also use this time as studying or down time; no matter how they use their newfound time, it will be productive. 

But it’s not all positive. Most importantly, school will end 45 minutes later, which can potentially cause conflicts with sports or other extracurricular activities. Lunch is delayed until 12:45 — an unusually late time to eat lunch.

Because of these issues, the school should consider shortening or removing tutorial on these days in order to release students and serve lunch at roughly the same time as normal. 

This has been the norm for late-start days in previous years and should be implemented this year as well. This way, students will still be able to benefit from the earlier start times without their schedules having to be significantly delayed. And if the late start times are popular enough, perhaps the school should consider starting classes even later than the current 8:15.